Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 5
Saturday–Tuesday, April 5–8, 2014; Savannah, Georgia
Session C2: Invited Session: DPF Prize Session II |
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: DPF Chair: Joanne Hewett, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Room: Chatham Ballroom A |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 1:30PM - 1:54PM |
C2.00001: J. J. Sakurai Prize: Scattering Amplitudes - the Story of Loops and Legs Invited Speaker: Lance Dixon Scattering amplitudes are at the interface between quantum field theory and particle experiment. Precise predictions for reactions at energy frontier machines such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) rely on quantum corrections to scattering amplitudes involving multiple quarks and gluons, as well as other particles. For decades, theorists used Feynman diagrams for this job. However, Feynman diagrams are just too slow, even on fast computers, to allow adequate precision for complicated events with many jets of hadrons in the final state. Such events are produced copiously at the LHC, and constitute formidable backgrounds to many searches for new physics. Over the past two decades, alternative methods to Feynman diagrams have come to fruition. The new ``on-shell'' methods are based on the old principle of unitarity. They can be much more efficient because they exploit the underlying simplicity of scattering amplitudes, and recycle lower-loop information. The same methods have also enabled new insight into the structure of gauge theory and gravity at the quantum level, especially in highly supersymmetric theories where they maintain all of the symmetries. I'll give a brief motivation for and introduction to the new methods, which will be followed by descriptions of their phenomenological and formal applications by David Kosower and Zvi Bern. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 1:54PM - 2:18PM |
C2.00002: J. J. Sakurai Prize: Precision Quantum Chromodynamics at the LHC Invited Speaker: David Kosower The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, is the highest-energy particle collider operating today. In 2012, the two general-purpose detector collaborations, ATLAS and CMS, announced the discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson, the last missing particle of the Standard Model. The two collaborations have also set limits on new physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry. Future direct and indirect searches for new physics require a precise, quantitative understanding of the known physics of the Standard Model, and in particular of the scattering of quark and gluon constituents of the proton under the strong force, known today as quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Achieving this level of understanding requires at least the incorporation of the first quantum corrections in perturbation theory -- next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections -- in scattering processes with several constituents leading to several jets in the final state. The new ``on-shell'' techniques, described earlier by Lance Dixon, have allowed these computations to be made beyond the reach of traditional diagrammatic methods. I will describe a direct numerical application of the new techniques in the BlackHat software library, and several phenomenological studies of physics at the LHC. These include studies relevant to CMS's supersymmetry searches, and to ATLAS measurements of electroweak vector-boson production with up to five associated jets. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 2:18PM - 2:42PM |
C2.00003: J. J. Sakurai Prize: Harmony of Scattering Amplitudes: From Gauge Theory to Supergravity Invited Speaker: Zvi Bern As explained in the two previous talks by Lance Dixon and David Kosower, on-shell methods have had an important impact on our understanding of scattering amplitudes and their application to collider physics. In this talk I will describe examples where these ideas have also had impacts in more theoretical areas. The first example shows how these methods have led to the construction of all quantum corrections to specific scattering amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric gauge theory with a large number of color charges. An active area of current research is to do the same for more intricate generic amplitudes of the theory. A second example shows how on-shell methods have uncovered new algebraic structures in gauge-theory amplitudes that have applications to quantum gravity. The advances make it possible to carry out computations in quantum gravity that would have been hopeless with more traditional Feynman diagram methods and to elucidate a remarkable connection between gauge and gravity theories. The results from these investigations have renewed hope that highly supersymmetric gravity theories may be ultraviolet finite, contrary to the prevailing wisdom. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700